Just call them ‘Sapiens’, for all sapient beings. If you need to specify humans then ‘Homo Sapiens’. For non-human sapiens, don’t focus on what they are not (not human) focus on what they are (hidden). So, maybe ‘Occultatum Sapiens’.

Cryptids? It’s hard to find a term that isn’t human centered since the groups being defined only have “existence unknown or questioned by humans” in common. I suppose you could lump them into categories, like medalliomed, monsters, and beasts (non-sapient), but I would think that might offend the monsters.

Yeah it seems to me analogous to the problem of naming the “queer” community, which by name defines the group as outside the norm. I know people like to use LGBTQIA, etc and MOGAI but for me queer is so much easier…

I would second “Cryptids”- it isn’t purjorative, meaning, at worst, “The mysterious creatures”- and that’s just what the ‘Mythics’ are- mysterious, without evidence to the world-at-large, yet not unknown to them.

You do have to take into consideration the culture though, to them crypted May have similar connotations to queer~ we’ve seen that there is a definite stigma between them and humans so it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to assume that in the past there may have been some less than savory terms to refer to our friends in the Avalons

I really appreciate how Merial took Lorne’s anxious change of subject and very naturally rolled with it, instead of pressing the matter. Nervous boy needs time to process… somehow I think that Merial will be a very important factor in making this budding poly relationship succeed where Jim and Lorne originally failed.

I like that she’s being sympathetic to Jim’s weird power situation… I think she realized she dropped the ball with Michelle when the latter was in a similar situation. A little sympathy can go a long way among friends. c:

O-kin. Short for ‘other kinds’. Two syllables, so not cumbersome to use in conversation. You cannot rely on already-existing words, since they already have meanings. Or just make a word that functions as a supercategory for entities that make a functioning society, so “human” is not being used. Whorfian hypothesis, Netizens!

‘Avalonians’ is 5 syllables. That is too many for casual conversation! It would get shortened to Avvies or something, kind of like how ‘United States of America’ is shortened to ‘U.S.’. Ever heard the story of Rikki Tikki Tembo? Names work best when short!

I’m not poly, but have been friends with a few poly trios/couples (including one who invited me to join). Here’s what I see so far:

1. The talk of Lorne and Jim getting back together without Merial alluding to breaking up.
2. The use of “we”
3. Hand-touching
4. Blushing
5. The topic of the importance of communication (that’s practically a mantra for successful poly relationships)

Also something about Merial seems very much like an open-minded, free-spirited person (a lot of poly folks seem to be like this), and she is not threatened by Jim apparently talking non-stop about Lorne.

I mean mainly for the list of resons listed above. They don’t know if Jim is going back to the US or what, so her suggestion of getting them back together (with no mention of leaving him or being upset about Jim possibly wanting to be with Lorne), and having a clear talk between all of them about what they want just seems like her suggesting some sort of alternative to “Jim wants to be with other people but also he and Lorne pine for each other constantly so they can only be together forever.” A poly relationship would be a reasonable suggestion. (I mean this is a world were Satyrs exist. I’d guess that open or poly relationships don’t suffer the same stigma as in our would.)

Sure she could also be suggesting that she’s willing to leave Jim for the sake of he and Lorne being together or having a long-distance relationship, but she was pretty enthusiastic about saying she can’t get enough of Jim. It doesn’t seem terribly like her, either. She cares about others, but forsaking a happy relationship just because it would make some guy she just met happy seems a bit extreme.

The last page kind of made it sound like she was suggesting Lorne and Jim get back together and she was just interested in making Jim happy (as opposed to them being in a super-serious relationship). This page, though, she throws in, “Of course, WE would have to talk to Jim about it”. If she were just talking about the two of them discussing their feelings, Merial herself wouldn’t enter the picture.

I love the character design you put into even the statues in the background, and have admired your artistic ability for four years or so. I am especially thankful for that art you did of a thylacosmilus terror bird griffin. That was amazing.

“Conclusion: there’s no perfect collective name for sapient non-human creatures.”

Well, somebody better think fast, since it’s obvious this community would have been calling themselves something for centuries, maybe in some other language. Also, any of their own documents must have a commonly-accepted word.

This, of course, can evolve over time. If you look at the names African-Americans have called themselves over the past hundred years, you can see early designations that would be considered offensive now.

Well I think that all this talk is just for show. I mean how many people have two or more significant others in there life at the same time. Unless you are cheating with one of them. But mean if they know about each other and stuff how well do you think it will work out. Right now all I can see if Lorne really does what merial says then there is going to be chaos or something.

P.S. I am changing my name from Atlas starwarrier to tatanka. It means buffalo or buffalo bull in the native American language of Lakota.

Probably the non-humans have been calling themselves what they are, e.g. nixie, satyr, centaur, Nemean lion, gorgon, rather than what they are in reference to humans. After all, it would be equally valid to fine a collective term for all the sentient creatures—including humans—who are non sphinxes.

I use the Non-Humans. It’s bad but at least it doesn’t insult us for not being humans it just states that we are not humans. We kind of need a new word for defining a presumably magical being in a positive context.

Indian, barbarian, gentail, pagan. Most words that treat all others as a single group tend to be created by a group to define it’s opposite. The words tend to be used as slurs by the originators even as they might be adopted or reappropriated by the outgroup they described nerd for instance. The best word would probably be made up such as Kin or Globers. If I used there relationship to us I would call them Valed or the Valed. But that does have the problem of meaning hidden.

Relationship-wise, this seems like a frankly *terrible* idea. They’ve barely met one another. Yes, Jim talked about Lorne a lot, but that’s no substitute for actually getting to know someone personally. Even if it turns out all three of them are compatible, the whole thing just seems like a massive minefield of awkward situations, misunderstandings, and inevitable heartbreak. Sharing your life with another person is *hard*, and adding another person to the mix seems like a recipe for disaster.

I’ll admit that I’ve got pretty strong pro-monogamy biases, but part of that’s because every “non-traditional” relationship I’ve ever witnessed has gone down in flames. It’s just too easy for someone to feel jealous or neglected. I’m sure there are people out there who can pull it off, but they seem to be rare as unicorns (maybe a bad example in this particular comic, but my point stands!)

Most likely then, from the most of the poly relationships *I’ve* seen, which are amazingly successful and still going strong 10 and more + years, the ones you’ve witnessed had poor communication skills. Poly requires by far and large more communication than a monogamous relationship does, simply because there are more parties, more schedules, and more feelings involved. It’s a delicate tightrope balancing act. And anyone who says that poly people don’t get jealous is lying – they absolutely do. It’s just that the successful relationships bring up to their partner(s) why they are jealous: feeling neglected because of lack of time, or affection, intimacy, etc, and then the problem is addressed. Without this crucial step, a poly relationship (or hell any relationship) will wither and die.

In my community, almost everyone I know is poly. It’s a complicated network but everyone navigates it respectfully, carefully, and for the most part, very successfully.

It’s not for everyone though, and more power to you if you’re not into it. This is by no means a monogamous bashing post. Really. :) People all have the right to love how they want to and feel comfortable loving. I just like to make sure that people have an accurate idea when they think about poly – which is one of the reasons I’m so excited about this turn in the comic. I really hope Muriel is indicating a poly relationship, and that Jim and Lorne can be mature enough to communicate properly! It would be so cute, and nice to have some representation. :3

I’m with ya. I feel their trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. I think that all the people involved still have some growing up to do before they could commit to something like that without someone getting hurt. Also I kinda want Merial to be wrong about something for once.

Well, the term therian is usually applied to people who spiritually identify with non-human animals. It is also close to the term theriomorphic which describes shapeshifters from human to animal form. The term theriomorphic is pretty modern, but it uses Greek roots to indicate (in a scholarly manner) the idea of a beast-man. In the past 30 years or so the term theriomorphic has been suggested by some members of the furry community to be more accurate than the term anthropomorphic.

So, you could postulate that in this world the term therian, with its ancient roots, is used to describe the non-human sapients who use magic to appear human usually but occasionally are seen in their proper form and are suspected of being shapeshifters.